Windows has several options built into their Start Menu. These options can be easily accessed by clicking the Start button, click Programs, click Accessories, and lastly click Accessibility.
The following options will allow the user to make changes needed to suit their visual needs.
Accessibility Wizard walks the user through a series of questions to set their visual preferences. Preferences include changing the icon size, the mouse size, contrast, the cursor size, the font size, the scroll bar size, as well as utilizing the screen magnifier. Not located in Windows 7. Windows 7 utilized the term ease of use.
Magnifier XP: gives a partial screen magnification "window". The user can adjust the size of the magnification window by dragging the edge with the mouse cursor, to a maximum of ½ screen size. Magnification levels are 1-9x. The magnification can be adjusted to follow the mouse, follow the keyboard focus, and to follow the text editing. Lastly, it also allows the user to change the contrast or use white letters on a dark background. Window 7: Has a full screen magnifier which include features such as the lens, dock, and full screen.
Narrator is a very limited screen reader. It will read aloud on-screen text, dialog boxes, menus and buttons in the Windows environment only. Additional options include announcing events on the screen, reading typed characters, and moving the mouse pointer to an active item.
On Screen Keyboard displays a keyboard which is accessible using the mouse. (Not typically a need for visually impaired students). Window 7 includes the word prediction feature.
Problems Encountered within Various School Districts
In many elementary schools the Start button is locked or is not accessible to students.
In high schools the Start button is typically unlocked; however the Accessibility options are locked.
Many schools do not have speakers, so the audio options are turned off. This leaves the Visually Impaired student with no access to speech output.
Personal Screen Magnification Systems
With new advancements in technology many of the companies producing screen magnification software are making this software available on a flash drive or USB drive. This makes all computer systems in your library accessible by inserting the thumb drive into the USB port. Zoomtext by AiSquared, is now producing this type of software however in order for a student to run the software it must be installed thus the student would require administrative privileges. Not currently supporting 64 bit.
System Access
The Serotek Corporation has partnered with several vendors to provide a full suite of accessibility tools including a screen reader (speech output) and screen magnification software. This software is available completely fee to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection by going to the www.satogo.com. The software is compatible with Windows XP and Vista (all versions including 64 bit), Internet Explorer 6 & 7, MS Office 03 and 07, Adobe Reader and Mozilla Firefox. Keys for k-12 provide a free license for System Access suite to all K through 12 students in the U.S. This same software is available on a flash drive inserted into the USB port. Unlike Zoomtext this is a U3 software programs that does not need to be installed on the hard drive. This software runs within the system tray. For more information please visit www.serotek.com/kk12.html
Text-to-Speech Preferences
- Text-to speech engine
- Voice (changes the voice)
- Speaking Rate
- Average Pitch
- Punctuation
Magnification
- Select preferences from the system access menu
- Select Screen Magnification Preferences
- Select magnify
- Click the larger or smaller buttons to adjust the magnification size
Problems Encountered within Various Districts
Once the website www.satogo.com is accessed it will ask you to click run to access an .exe file. This file has been interpreted has a download in some districts and thus the software will not run.
In some districts the USB drives are not accessible to insert the flash drive
In some cases the security is so controlled U3 software programs are not permitted to run.
Apple systems new OS software starting from Tiger 10.4 and above has included built in software to accommodate the need of the visually impaired. The universal options menus are accessible by clicking the apple, click system preferences, and then click universal options. The Mac OS X includes many features to assist you, including a built-in screen reader, voice commands, screen magnification, high-contrast settings, and other technologies and features described below.
VoiceOver (speech output)
Your preferences — to go
Once you’ve customized your own Mac, you can take all your VoiceOver settings with you on the road. To do so, connect a USB flash drive to your Mac and choose Create Portable Preferences from the File menu in VoiceOver Utility.
When you connect the flash drive to a Mac, VoiceOver automatically detects its presence and instantly reconfigures itself to match the Portable Preferences saved on the flash drive for such items as your Pronunciation Dictionary; Braille input key assignments, and NumPad Commander settings. Once you’ve customized your own Mac, you can take all your VoiceOver settings with you on the road. To do so, connect a USB flash drive to your Mac and choose Create Portable Preferences from the File menu in VoiceOver Utility. When you connect the flash drive to a Mac, VoiceOver automatically detects its presence and instantly reconfigures itself to match the Portable Preferences saved on the flash drive for such items as your Pronunciation Dictionary, Braille input key assignments, and NumPad Commander settings. ZOOM (screen magnification software) Magnification: Zoom lets you use the scroll wheel on a mouse, a trackpad gesture, or key commands to magnify the entire contents of your screen by up to 40x. Cursor Magnification: enlarges the contents of your display at any time using Zoom, located in the Universal Access pane in System Preferences. Zoom lets you use the scroll wheel on a mouse, a trackpad gesture, or key commands to magnify the entire contents of your screen. Contrast: You can increase or decrease contrast by switching the screen to white-on-black or black-on-white, and you can vary the contrast using a slider control. If you would like to remove all color from the screen, you’ll find controls for displaying everything in black and white or grayscale.
Finder View Options: Use View Options (Command-J) to adjust the text size of icon names (from 10 to 16 points) and their thumbnail previews (from 16 by 16 to 128 by 128 pixels). You can change the background, normally white, to any color to increase contrast. And you can adjust the grid spacing between icons as well. Dock Magnification: Though the Dock can be quite small if you add a great many items, Mac OS X lets you set the default size of Dock icons so they're easier to see. You can also use Dock Magnification to automatically enlarge the icon currently under the mouse pointer.
Safari Cascading Style sheets (CSS)
The Safari web browser included with Mac OS X features additional Universal Access preferences for web browsing. For example, a checkbox can be set to prevent a web page from being displayed using fonts smaller than the minimum size you set, from 9 to 24 point. By default, pressing the Tab key in Safari navigates only the toolbar and the form elements on a page. Pressing Option-Tab will navigate every element. If you prefer, you switch this behavior so pressing Tab key by itself will navigate every element and pressing Option-Tab navigates only the toolbar and form elements. Using the style sheet pop-up preference, you can apply a custom cascading style sheet, called a “css”, that changes the way a web site is displayed without requiring the web site author to make any changes. This is a great way to customize the appearance of web pages to suit your specific needs. Problems Encountered within Various Districts 1. System Preferences is blocked to students 2. Universal Options menus are blocked to students 3. VoiceOver does not work with Apple Words or MS Word. In order for the user to utilize speech output for word processing they must utilize Text Edit. This is similar to word pad in the windows system. This should be made accessible so VI students and type their information and then cut and paste it into the word processing document of their choice.
Focus: A window, dialog, menu, or control that receives input. For example, the object that is currently receiving keyboard input has "focus." Hot Key: A keystroke combination that causes a function to take place. For example, most screen magnifiers have hot keys to increase and decrease magnification. Inverse: A feature that swaps the foreground colors with background colors. Locator: A feature that shows which portion of the unmagnified screen is in view in the magnified portion. It is helpful for navigating around the screen, especially when high magnification levels are being used. Panning: This feature allows you to move the magnified view automatically in one direction using a set of "hot keys." It can be used for reading text or navigating around the screen. Primary Magnification Window: The main magnified view currently being used. The "primary magnification window" can be one of the following four views and can be set to any magnification power that the software allows.
Full Screen View: A magnification setting that enlarges the entire screen.
Lens View: A magnification setting that places a box on the screen, which is magnified. The rest of the screen remains unmagnified. This "lens" is moved around the screen with the mouse.
Split Screen View: A magnification setting that divides the screen into two sections. One section is magnified while the other section remains unmagnified. The setup of the "split screen" can be either horizontal or vertical.
Overlay: A magnification setting that magnifies one corner of the screen while the rest of the screen remains unmagnified. This corner of the screen does not move, but as the mouse or "focus" changes, its image changes.
Secondary Magnification Window: Additional magnified views that can be placed over the "primary magnification window" or the "unmagnified view." "Secondary magnification windows" are usually designed for specific purposes. For example, a "secondary magnification window" can be placed over the time, so it is always magnified. Smoothing: As higher magnification levels are reached, more details of an object are seen. This means that pixels become more apparent, giving a stair-step appearance. "Smoothing" attempts to compensate for this problem by combining bordering pixels with each other. Stretching: The ability to alter the appearance of the screen to make it look as though it has been magnified in only one direction- -either horizontally or vertically. Tracking: A feature that enables the magnified area to change its viewing area automatically when another object outside the magnified view becomes active. Unmagnified View: The area of the screen that appears in its default size. The only magnification setting in which there is no "unmagnified view" is the "full screen view." Verbosity: Determines the amount of detail spoken when a window's component gains "focus." For example, the text of the component will always be read, but the type of component it is may or may not be read.
Windows has several options built into their Start Menu. These options can be easily accessed by clicking the Start button, click Programs, click Accessories, and lastly click Accessibility.
The following options will allow the user to make changes needed to suit their visual needs.
Accessibility Wizard walks the user through a series of questions to set their visual preferences. Preferences include changing the icon size, the mouse size, contrast, the cursor size, the font size, the scroll bar size, as well as utilizing the screen magnifier. Not located in Windows 7. Windows 7 utilized the term ease of use.
Magnifier XP: gives a partial screen magnification "window". The user can adjust the size of the magnification window by dragging the edge with the mouse cursor, to a maximum of ½ screen size. Magnification levels are 1-9x. The magnification can be adjusted to follow the mouse, follow the keyboard focus, and to follow the text editing. Lastly, it also allows the user to change the contrast or use white letters on a dark background.
Window 7: Has a full screen magnifier which include features such as the lens, dock, and full screen.
Narrator is a very limited screen reader. It will read aloud on-screen text, dialog boxes, menus and buttons in the Windows environment only. Additional options include announcing events on the screen, reading typed characters, and moving the mouse pointer to an active item.
On Screen Keyboard displays a keyboard which is accessible using the mouse. (Not typically a need for visually impaired students). Window 7 includes the word prediction feature.
Problems Encountered within Various School Districts
Personal Screen Magnification Systems
With new advancements in technology many of the companies producing screen magnification software are making this software available on a flash drive or USB drive. This makes all computer systems in your library accessible by inserting the thumb drive into the USB port. Zoomtext by AiSquared, is now producing this type of software however in order for a student to run the software it must be installed thus the student would require administrative privileges. Not currently supporting 64 bit.
System Access
The Serotek Corporation has partnered with several vendors to provide a full suite of accessibility tools including a screen reader (speech output) and screen magnification software. This software is available completely fee to anyone, anywhere with an internet connection by going to the www.satogo.com. The software is compatible with Windows XP and Vista (all versions including 64 bit), Internet Explorer 6 & 7, MS Office 03 and 07, Adobe Reader and Mozilla Firefox. Keys for k-12 provide a free license for System Access suite to all K through 12 students in the U.S. This same software is available on a flash drive inserted into the USB port. Unlike Zoomtext this is a U3 software programs that does not need to be installed on the hard drive. This software runs within the system tray. For more information please visit www.serotek.com/kk12.html
Text-to-Speech Preferences
- Text-to speech engine
- Voice (changes the voice)
- Speaking Rate
- Average Pitch
- Punctuation
Magnification
- Select preferences from the system access menu
- Select Screen Magnification Preferences
- Select magnify
- Click the larger or smaller buttons to adjust the magnification size
Problems Encountered within Various Districts
Mac and Apple Systems
http://www.apple.com/accessibility/macosx/vision.html
Apple systems new OS software starting from Tiger 10.4 and above has included built in software to accommodate the need of the visually impaired. The universal options menus are accessible by clicking the apple, click system preferences, and then click universal options. The Mac OS X includes many features to assist you, including a built-in screen reader, voice commands, screen magnification, high-contrast settings, and other technologies and features described below.
VoiceOver (speech output)
Your preferences — to go
Once you’ve customized your own Mac, you can take all your VoiceOver settings with you on the road. To do so, connect a USB flash drive to your Mac and choose Create Portable Preferences from the File menu in VoiceOver Utility.
When you connect the flash drive to a Mac, VoiceOver automatically detects its presence and instantly reconfigures itself to match the Portable Preferences saved on the flash drive for such items as your Pronunciation Dictionary; Braille input key assignments, and NumPad Commander settings.Once you’ve customized your own Mac, you can take all your VoiceOver settings with you on the road. To do so, connect a USB flash drive to your Mac and choose Create Portable Preferences from the File menu in VoiceOver Utility.
When you connect the flash drive to a Mac, VoiceOver automatically detects its presence and instantly reconfigures itself to match the Portable Preferences saved on the flash drive for such items as your Pronunciation Dictionary, Braille input key assignments, and NumPad Commander settings.
ZOOM (screen magnification software)
Magnification: Zoom lets you use the scroll wheel on a mouse, a trackpad gesture, or key commands to magnify the entire contents of your screen by up to 40x.
Cursor Magnification: enlarges the contents of your display at any time using Zoom, located in the Universal Access pane in System Preferences. Zoom lets you use the scroll wheel on a mouse, a trackpad gesture, or key commands to magnify the entire contents of your screen.
Contrast: You can increase or decrease contrast by switching the screen to white-on-black or black-on-white, and you can vary the contrast using a slider control. If you would like to remove all color from the screen, you’ll find controls for displaying everything in black and white or grayscale.
Finder View Options: Use View Options (Command-J) to adjust the text size of icon names (from 10 to 16 points) and their thumbnail previews (from 16 by 16 to 128 by 128 pixels). You can change the background, normally white, to any color to increase contrast. And you can adjust the grid spacing between icons as well.
Dock Magnification: Though the Dock can be quite small if you add a great many items, Mac OS X lets you set the default size of Dock icons so they're easier to see. You can also use Dock Magnification to automatically enlarge the icon currently under the mouse pointer.
Safari Cascading Style sheets (CSS)
The Safari web browser included with Mac OS X features additional Universal Access preferences for web browsing. For example, a checkbox can be set to prevent a web page from being displayed using fonts smaller than the minimum size you set, from 9 to 24 point. By default, pressing the Tab key in Safari navigates only the toolbar and the form elements on a page. Pressing Option-Tab will navigate every element. If you prefer, you switch this behavior so pressing Tab key by itself will navigate every element and pressing Option-Tab navigates only the toolbar and form elements.Using the style sheet pop-up preference, you can apply a custom cascading style sheet, called a “css”, that changes the way a web site is displayed without requiring the web site author to make any changes. This is a great way to customize the appearance of web pages to suit your specific needs.
Problems Encountered within Various Districts
1. System Preferences is blocked to students
2. Universal Options menus are blocked to students
3. VoiceOver does not work with Apple Words or MS Word. In order for the user to utilize speech output for word processing they must utilize Text Edit. This is similar to word pad in the windows system. This should be made accessible so VI students and type their information and then cut and paste it into the word processing document of their choice.
Screen Magnifier Glossary
www.afb.org
Focus: A window, dialog, menu, or control that receives input. For example, the object that is currently receiving keyboard input has "focus."Hot Key: A keystroke combination that causes a function to take place. For example, most screen magnifiers have hot keys to increase and decrease magnification.
Inverse: A feature that swaps the foreground colors with background colors.
Locator: A feature that shows which portion of the unmagnified screen is in view in the magnified portion. It is helpful for navigating around the screen, especially when high magnification levels are being used.
Panning: This feature allows you to move the magnified view automatically in one direction using a set of "hot keys." It can be used for reading text or navigating around the screen.
Primary Magnification Window: The main magnified view currently being used. The "primary magnification window" can be one of the following four views and can be set to any magnification power that the software allows.
- Full Screen View: A magnification setting that enlarges the entire screen.
- Lens View: A magnification setting that places a box on the screen, which is magnified. The rest of the screen remains unmagnified. This "lens" is moved around the screen with the mouse.
- Split Screen View: A magnification setting that divides the screen into two sections. One section is magnified while the other section remains unmagnified. The setup of the "split screen" can be either horizontal or vertical.
- Overlay: A magnification setting that magnifies one corner of the screen while the rest of the screen remains unmagnified. This corner of the screen does not move, but as the mouse or "focus" changes, its image changes.
Secondary Magnification Window: Additional magnified views that can be placed over the "primary magnification window" or the "unmagnified view." "Secondary magnification windows" are usually designed for specific purposes. For example, a "secondary magnification window" can be placed over the time, so it is always magnified.Smoothing: As higher magnification levels are reached, more details of an object are seen. This means that pixels become more apparent, giving a stair-step appearance. "Smoothing" attempts to compensate for this problem by combining bordering pixels with each other.
Stretching: The ability to alter the appearance of the screen to make it look as though it has been magnified in only one direction- -either horizontally or vertically.
Tracking: A feature that enables the magnified area to change its viewing area automatically when another object outside the magnified view becomes active.
Unmagnified View: The area of the screen that appears in its default size. The only magnification setting in which there is no "unmagnified view" is the "full screen view."
Verbosity: Determines the amount of detail spoken when a window's component gains "focus." For example, the text of the component will always be read, but the type of component it is may or may not be read.
ALT: Accelerators for Increasing the Productivity of Blind and Visually Impaired Workers